Well, working on book four of this series has been great. Ideas seem to be flowing. Parts that I’ve always known to exist are still there and working. The problem I’m having is what chapter speaks to me and when.

This is causing me to write chapters at a time from all over the time line. It’s all out-of-order and I’m not sure how I want to rearrange it. Usually, I’m a linear writer. I know how I want to begin. I know what needs to go through to get to the end. I know how I want it to end. Then I rearrange as necessary.

With a screenplay, writing out-of-order is easy… just scene to scene, add in scenes in between. Writing these chapters out-of-order is driving me insane. Literally!

found on giphy.com

I can’t figure out what I want to go first. If I go total linear timeline, nothing feels cohesive about it from book three to four. But when I go to arrange the twelve chapters I do have written (whoa! I have twelve already? whoa!), I can’t get a flow I’m happy with. I do have an outline, but I never stick to it outside of the major events that need to occur to progress a story.

found on tumblr

So, I put it to my readers. Maybe you write chapters like this and can give some advice on what to do. Maybe you can slap some sense into me and tell me to get my head on straight. Or should I just keep going until I’ve written out what I want to happen, what needs to happen, then find a way to weave it together to make a real story… I’ll take anything at this point.

2 responses to “No, you’re out of order!”

I’d say write it all out so you get all the pieces in that you want. Start putting them together later. You might find that you need to remove a chunk to put in the next chapter. Ya never know how all the chips may fall.

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